Declare War on Police Brutality

LIVONIA, Mich. – A young woman with special needs says she thought she was going to die after police officers threw her to the ground and handcuffed her inside the Livonia Walmart.

When the Kozma family couldn’t get an apology from Livonia police, they sued the city and Walmart.

Those lawsuits have now been resolved, but the Kozma’s are upset that more isn’t being done to make sure this never happens again.

Jodi Kozma’s parents say what should have been a simple shopping trip, turned into their daughter being traumatized by a false accusation of shoplifting, and an aggressive and unnecessary arrest.

“What died with me that day, was just seeing the heartbreak that she suffered,” said Wendy Kozma.

She says her daughter may be 27-years-old, but due to a birth defect, she has the mental capacity of an 8-year-old. Jodi’s parents are her legal guardians, and they make sure Jodi is always accompanied by a family member on outings.

The Kozma’s have always stressed to their daughter that if someone ever tries to harm her she should find the nearest police officer.

“That was broken in an instant. In an instant,” said Wendy Kozma.

On August 3, 2012, Jodi’s grandma and aunt took her to the Livonia Walmart. But store loss prevention officers thought they saw Jodi putting a package of hair ties in her waistband.

In fact, Jodi had paid for those $3 hair ties, but that didn’t stop Walmart’s security team from calling the cops.

Gordon says instead of calmly talking to family members or to Jodi, within ten seconds Livonia police officers were on top of Jodi, handcuffing her.

“They said put your hands behind your back for us, she thought she was just complying and the next thing she knew, she was thrown to the ground. So this has caused a significant fear. She reacts when she sees patrol cars, she reacts when they go near the Walmart, because she led a very sheltered life,” Gordon told 7 Investigator Heather Catallo.

Gordon says the police violated the Kozma’s trust even more when they separated Jodi from her relatives for questioning. This is how her mother described that to us back in 2014:

“I told them that her IQ was very low and I was her guardian and that was the equivalent of holding an 8-year-old without representation, and I needed to be by her side,” said Wendy Kozma.

Once Wendy was allowed in, she showed the officers that Jodi had nothing hidden on her body and that she hadn’t stolen a thing. The Kozma’s later asked Livonia police to investigate the incident and they wanted an apology so that Jodi could once again trust the police.

“It didn’t go any further than their little office, and that was atrocious,” said Wendy Kozma.

When Jodi never got that apology, the Kozma’s felt they had no choice but to sue. They recently settled their lawsuit against Livonia for $125,000.

About author

Filming Cops was started in 2010 as a conglomerative blogging service documenting police abuse. The aim isn’t to demonize the natural concept of security provision as such, but to highlight specific cases of State-monopolized police brutality that are otherwise ignored by traditional media outlets.